The Digital Generation Project: Multimodal Web Reports on College Students' Use of Digital Technologies
Heidi McKee, Assistant Professor-English & Coordinator of the Digital Writing Collaborative, Miami University
Zach Burns, Kenton Butcher, and Dirk Long, Undergraduate Students, Miami University
Students in a first-year writing course completed the Digital Generation Project (DGP), which involved primary and secondary research and the composing of a multimodal web site incorporating visual, audio, and textual components.Working in teams for a period of five weeks, students reported on the usage of such technologies on college campuses as cellphones, ipods, gaming, and, as described for this CCCC workshop, Facebook.
Assignment Prompt:
Working in teams of three, you will select a specific digital communications technology on which to research, analyze, and report. Your goals for this assignment are to develop a robust, in-depth presentation of not only how this technology is used by you and your college peers (the so-called "digital generation"), but also how young adults conceive of this technology--what stories and metaphors do people use to describe their relationships with a particular technology? Do you see common themes in these descriptions? How do they think their lives would be different without this technology? How do they think this technology contributes/detracts from/changes their lives? Do people use this technology for educational, social, political, etc. purposes? What do people actually "do" with this technology? How is that technology impacting college students' communicative and educational practices?
To situate your discussion within broader social, political, cultural contexts, you will also conduct research about this particular technology. When was it invented, what uses was it originally designed/touted for? How have those uses morphed? How is this particular technology represented in the popular press? For example, when the telephone first came out there was a huge outcry in the press that it would lead to wanton, promiscuous behavior because--gasp!--young people could talk to each other without direct supervision. What fears/hopes/powers have been ascribed to the digital technology your group is examining?
In the process of conducting this research and analysis, you and your group members will take notes on articles, participate in class discussions, develop a project plan, learn how to use new technologies, conduct video and audio interviews, and revise multiple drafts of multimedia compositions. The final product you produce will be a multi-modal web essay--that is, a web site about your particular technology and college students' uses of and relationships to that technology that incorporates written text, pictures, and short video clips. The audience for your project will be your fellow college students and College Writing instructors who may, with your permission, read/watch/interact with your web essay. You will have both individual and group components to this project, and you will receive both an individual and a group grade.
Besides some class sessions focused on tutorials for using such programs as i-Movie and Dreamweaver, I will also hold evening office hours throughout the month of April so as to be available to help you with these projects. More specific information about each phase of the process will be forthcoming as the projects develop.
Additional Assignments:
Selected readings on shooting video, conducting interviews, and constructing surveys (readings varied depending on each project team's needs)
Selected readings on web design/composition and on issues of copyright
Team progress reports (composed in a wiki)
Team assignment deadlines (project teams developed their own goals and deadlines for what was due from whom when)
Final reflective letter from each individual (2-pages single-spaced, reflecting on project and individual's and team's working processes and effort)
Students in a first-year writing course completed the Digital Generation Project (DGP), which involved primary and secondary research and the composing of a multimodal web site incorporating visual, audio, and textual components. Working in teams for a period of five weeks, students reported on the usage of such technologies on college campuses as cellphones, ipods, gaming, and, as described for this CCCC workshop, Facebook.
Zach, Kenton, & Dirk's Digital Generation Project
Facebook: What is this new phenomena?(http://www.users.muohio.edu/mckeeha/english112/facebook)
Assignment Prompt:
Working in teams of three, you will select a specific digital communications technology on which to research, analyze, and report. Your goals for this assignment are to develop a robust, in-depth presentation of not only how this technology is used by you and your college peers (the so-called "digital generation"), but also how young adults conceive of this technology--what stories and metaphors do people use to describe their relationships with a particular technology? Do you see common themes in these descriptions? How do they think their lives would be different without this technology? How do they think this technology contributes/detracts from/changes their lives? Do people use this technology for educational, social, political, etc. purposes? What do people actually "do" with this technology? How is that technology impacting college students' communicative and educational practices?
To situate your discussion within broader social, political, cultural contexts, you will also conduct research about this particular technology. When was it invented, what uses was it originally designed/touted for? How have those uses morphed? How is this particular technology represented in the popular press? For example, when the telephone first came out there was a huge outcry in the press that it would lead to wanton, promiscuous behavior because--gasp!--young people could talk to each other without direct supervision. What fears/hopes/powers have been ascribed to the digital technology your group is examining?
In the process of conducting this research and analysis, you and your group members will take notes on articles, participate in class discussions, develop a project plan, learn how to use new technologies, conduct video and audio interviews, and revise multiple drafts of multimedia compositions. The final product you produce will be a multi-modal web essay--that is, a web site about your particular technology and college students' uses of and relationships to that technology that incorporates written text, pictures, and short video clips. The audience for your project will be your fellow college students and College Writing instructors who may, with your permission, read/watch/interact with your web essay. You will have both individual and group components to this project, and you will receive both an individual and a group grade.
Besides some class sessions focused on tutorials for using such programs as i-Movie and Dreamweaver, I will also hold evening office hours throughout the month of April so as to be available to help you with these projects. More specific information about each phase of the process will be forthcoming as the projects develop.
Additional Assignments:
Selected readings on shooting video, conducting interviews, and constructing surveys (readings varied depending on each project team's needs)
Selected readings on web design/composition and on issues of copyright
Team progress reports (composed in a wiki)
Team assignment deadlines (project teams developed their own goals and deadlines for what was due from whom when)
Final reflective letter from each individual (2-pages single-spaced, reflecting on project and individual's and team's working processes and effort)
Link to Detailed Course Schedule http://www.users.muohio.edu/mckeeha/english112/assignments/schedule.html
Software Used
i-Movie (all teams)
Dreamweaver (all teams)
Audacity (some teams)
Image editor (all teams)